Forests

"Forest Defense is Climate Defense"

On October 10, 2018 Oregon Wild released a new report, "Forest Defense Is Climate Defense", about the fascinating relationship between our forests and the climate. The report compiles the latest research on forest-carbon and explains how the single most effective action Oregon can take to combat climate change is to change our forest policies.

Click Hereto see highlights from the Oregon Global Warming Commission and their Forest Carbon Report.

SERIES OF EDUCATIONAL FORUMS

Oregon Wild and partner groups hosted a series of educational forums around the state in 2018 about the relationship between the climate and our forests. These presentations in Corvallis, Eugene, Oregon City, Newport, and Portland educated hundreds of Oregonians. Below is a video recording of the December 4th Portland forum.

Old-growth forests are much better at storing and releasing water than timber plantations.

Average daily streamflow in summer (July through September) in basins with 34 to 43 year‐old plantations of Douglas‐fir was 50% lower than streamflow from reference basins with 150‐ to 500‐year‐old forests dominated by Douglas‐fir, western hemlock, and other conifers

Large, old trees do not act simply as senescent carbon reservoirs but actively fix large amounts of carbon compared to smaller trees; at the extreme, a single big tree can add the same amount of carbon to the forest within a year as is contained in an entire mid-sized tree.

Protected areas, when integrated into landuse plans as part of larger and connected conservation networks, offer practical, tangible solutions to the problems of both species loss and adaptation to climate change.

13. Oregon has the weakest logging rules in the region. The neighboring states of Washington, California, and Idaho all do more to protect streams and communities from the impacts of logging practices like clearcutting and the aerial spraying of herbicides.